“So?” Polly asked, obviously waiting on a response from me.
I sighed. “I’ll do some digging,” I relented. “Now will you please go away and stop bothering me, you little pissant?”
“Sure thing,” she said, back to her normal cheerful tone as she practically skipped toward the door. “I was about to go over and visit with Lanie anyway. I’m sure she can use the girl time.”
“Don’t bring this up with her, Polly. I mean it.”
“Okay, okay,” she said with her hands raised in surrender.
“And you’re fucking fired, by the way.”
She rolled her eyes, knowing it was a lie, and said, “Mmm, okay. I dropped your laundry off at the dry cleaner’s. So I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”
As soon as she was gone, I picked up the container of my uneaten lunch and chucked it in the trash. I slammed my fist down on the desk in frustration, mostly aimed at myself. I should’ve been smarter about this. I should’ve been a little less selfish, a little less perverted—a little less hard up.
I opened the contacts list on my computer and found the number I was looking for. Brett Sherman was a ruthless private investigator who I’d hired when things turned sour with Julie. I thought for sure she’d try to pull some stunt and blackmail me or something, so I’d commissioned him to do some digging to get the dirt on her before she could even try. I’d used him on occasion since then. The fucker charged an arm and a leg, but the work he did was worth every inflated penny.
I dialed the number and was pleasantly surprised when he answered on the first ring.
“Brett Sherman.”
“Brett, Noah Crawford,” I greeted him.
“Mr. Crawford! What can I do ya for?” He was obviously happy to hear from me.
“I need you to find out everything you can on a lady by the name of Delaine Talbot from Hillsboro, Illinois,” I said. “Do you need anything else?”
“An age would be nice.”
I felt even more disgusted with myself because I’d violated her in so many ways, with plans to violate her in even more ways in the future, and I didn’t even know the answer to that simple little question.
“Early twenties,” I guessed.
“That should be enough to go on. I’ll call you by the end of the week,” he said, and hung up the phone abruptly.
Sherman didn’t have the manners for pleasantries, but I was fine with that because I knew he’d go right to work the second the call ended.
“Noah!” David barged into my office, un-fucking-announced and un-motherfucking-invited.
“What do you want?” I said in a voice that conveyed that I wasn’t in the mood to deal with his shit.
“Do I have to want something to come have a chitty-chat with my friend?” he asked with an arrogant grin as he sat down in a chair and propped his feet on my desk.
“You and I haven’t been friends for a long time, David. And I doubt we ever really were.” I leaned across the desk and knocked his feet down. And I was none too nice about it, either.
“Oh, don’t be that way, Noah,” he said with a mock pout. “You don’t still have your panties in a twist over that Janet girl, do you?”
“Julie, and fuck you.”
“No, fuck you,” he said as if he was insulted. “I can’t believe you let a chick come between us, man. Whatever happened to bros before hos?”
“Chitty-chat time is over, Stone. Get out or I’ll throw you out,” I said between clenched teeth.
David stood and started for the door. “I swear, I don’t know why you’re still so bent out of shape over that slut. I told you, man. Or at least I tried to tell you. They’re all gold-diggin’ whores. Hit it and quit it, love ’em and leave ’em … whatever,” he said with a shrug. “Just don’t get emotionally attached, and never ever let them see you sweat, my brother.”
I scoffed. “Like I’d take relationship advice from you.”
“Say what you want about me, but the ladies are clawing at each other to get all up on my jock.” He grinned and then grabbed his junk. “Just wait until you see my date for the ball. Whew! She is one hell of a looker,” he said with a wink.
“Hooker is probably more like it,” I mumbled as he walked out.
I could hear the smug bastard boisterously greet Mason like they were old college buddies, and it made my eye twitch in aggravation. I really hated him. Our whole lives, he’d just had to have anything I had. I’d thought it was one of those things that best friends did, but David took that to a whole other level. My friends, my girl, even my company—he wanted it all.
Well, I had something he could never have. I had Delaine. And I’d be damned if I’d ever let him anywhere near her.
I’d had enough for the day, so I picked up the phone and told Samuel to bring the car around. It wasn’t like I was getting anything done anyway. I packed up and told Mason to call me if anything needed my immediate attention. I couldn’t wait to see Delaine for a bit of stress management, and I was pacing like a madman by the time Samuel arrived.
He opened the door of the limousine for me to step inside and asked, “Where to, sir?”
“Home, and when we get there, make sure the staff take the rest of the day off,” I told him. “I’d like a little bit of alone time with Delaine.”
“Mr. Crawford, sir, Lanie left with Polly. They went shopping for a gown for the ball, I believe.”
“Samuel, have you forgotten your place?” I asked in a calm voice, because he’d just called her Lanie and that wasn’t at all like him. “Her name is Delaine.”
“My apologies, sir, but she asked me to call her Lanie.”
My jaw clenched and I reached out and slammed the door shut myself. I shouldn’t have been upset with him, because it wasn’t his fault. He was just doing what he’d been asked to do, as usual. But damn it all to hell if I wasn’t royally pissed the fuck off that it seemed everyone else on the damned planet was calling her by such an informal name, yet she’d never asked me to do the same. You’d think the guy that was getting balls-deep in her would be awarded that privilege.
It was around five o’clock that afternoon when Polly finally dropped her off and she strolled through the door. I hadn’t bothered to call and tell her that I would be home early, so she was surprised when she opened the door to find me sitting on one of the benches in the foyer. My knee was bouncing like crazy and my hair was mussed from my having practically pulled it out by the roots in my impatience.